One of Edinburgh's most iconic buildings re-opened last week after an ambitious £17.6 million renovation project - The Scottish National Portrait Gallery. We'll be exploring the brand new presentation of it's world-famous collection which stretches from before the Reformation to the present day. Is it a thing of beauty? Well according to the great philosopher& thinker, David Hume, that would be 'in the mind which contemplates it; and each mind perceives a different beauty'. And on that note the Talbot Rice Gallery presents 'Beholder', an exhibition exploring taste and subjectivity in the visual arts.

In a further nod to the 300th anniversary celebrations of Hume, with the help of a Traverse production, we imagine how he would feel if he were to return to 21st century Edinburgh with his economist pal, Adam Smith.

Playwright Jo Clifford, Art writer Anne Ellis, and Sandy Wood, Assistant Curator of RSA Collections at the Dean Gallery, give us their take on a gallery of portraits, beautiful and not so beautiful art & David Hume!

....and we introduce a very special offer of an Art History Dr! Our new initiative for January offers listeners the opportunity to have their own private guide interpret a major painting for them. Show less